Union City man acquitted of sex charges against 13-year-old daughter

A Union City man who had spent the past 16 months in jail was acquitted Thursday of charges that he groped his 13-year-old daughter and forced her to perform a sex act on him, officials said.

“It’s sad because even though he has been found not guilty, he has been in jail all this time,” defense attorney Genesis Peduto said of her 37-year-old client, who has been in jail in lieu of a $300,000 cash-only bail since his arrest on Jan. 22, 2011.

Peduto said yesterday that upon hearing the not-guilty verdict, her client “was crying, saying ‘Thank you,’ and he was very emotional.”

The acquittal was handed down just before 11 a.m. in the courtroom of Hudson County Superior Court Judge Lisa Rose in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City, court officials said.

The Jersey City girl had testified on May 17 that her father forced her to perform a sex act on him and groped her on several occasions when she visited his Union City home in 2010 and last year.

The father had been charged with aggravated sexual assault, which could have carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, and endangering the welfare of a child, which could have carried a sentence of up to 10 years.